It’s Time to Commit to Trust-Based Marketing

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James McDermott is co-founder and CEO of Lytics. James was previously CEO of Storycode, a mobile software company acquired by Postano and vice president, business development at Webtrends, an analytics and optimization company.

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Digital marketing is at an operational and ethical crossroads. Everyone is tired of lazy marketing that is intrusive, inefficient and that leaves people feeling frustrated or worse, burned. For those of us in the business of helping brands build relationships with their customers, now is a time of reckoning writes, James McDermott, CEO, Lytics

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Just look at the mainstream press headlines. Whether it’s Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg getting grilled before Congress or the onset of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, the general population is increasingly wary of how their personal data is used. And I can’t blame them.

For those of us in the business of helping brands build relationships with their customers, now is a time of reckoning. The big question on my mind at this point, is: In the midst of all this controversy, can brands rise above the noise and deliver efficient marketing campaigns tailored to the individual consumer? I think they can, and there’s a way to do it right.

It’s time we took a stand against bad practices that do us no favors. It’s time we stood our ground and declared that third-party data pieced together and purchased without the knowledge and consent of the individual consumer is no longer acceptable. It’s time we all acknowledged that marketing campaigns built on that sort of flawed data are no longer merely rude or annoying; they are unethical.

In the wake of consumer data misappropriation scandals, companies and brands that align with the values of Trust-Based Marketing will thrive.

But embracing Trust-Based Marketing means more than just respectful gathering of data. The concept also sets the expectation that marketers use personal data to serve the customer’s best interests. The end goal is to make customers feel both valued and understood.

Think of it this way: All the data in the world won't help you if you don't use it the right way.

This is an opportunity for our industry. Now we can bring our customers along, so they can understand why this matters. To help marketers understand and measure the impact they are having on customer trust, we’ve been developing tools and KPIs to help marketers understand how their practices are affecting the consumer’s trust in the brand. This needs to become more than just a good idea.

With all that’s transpired with regard to the misuse of consumer online data in recent months, one needs to talk more about the concept of Trust-Based Marketing, and how it can help our industry.

It’s not getting any easier out there in the marketing technology world. But we believe this is our industry’s chance to develop the future of digital marketing – built on trust, and in service of the consumer. Brands that put their customers' interests ahead of their own will thrive in this environment.